Jim Chapman, an attorney and member of of the Carbondale 3Rs chapter was the keynote speaker at the New Humanist forum at Carbondale Unitarian Fellowship sponsored by the Peace Coalition of Southern Illinois.

He spoke about how the prisons dysfunctional, underfunded, and understaffed, but that the local community has the power to come together and make changes.

"There has to be a participation by the private sector --- mainly us," Chapman said. "Because the state at this point, and the prisons in particular, don't have the money to do what they should be doing."